💡 A reminder about the value of doing your job well

In a recent 1-1 with my manager, I shared a small success I was proud of, a dashboard I had created, helped an account executive to secure a contract renewal with an increased value. I explained that I wanted to celebrate this small achievement, as it felt like a win for me as a data professional.

My manager's response?

"𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵'𝘴 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘳𝘰𝘭𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘴. 𝘐𝘵'𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘲𝘶𝘪𝘳𝘦𝘴 𝘱𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘴𝘦. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘤𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵 𝘦𝘹𝘦𝘤𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘥𝘪𝘥 𝘢 𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵 𝘫𝘰𝘣 𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘢𝘵𝘢 𝘦𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘢𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘦𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘶𝘭𝘵."

And you know what? I couldn't agree more.

Sometimes, it's easy to get caught up in the excitement of delivering results and forget the essence of my role: to empower others with actionable insights and reliable data. My job is to provide the foundation, but the real impact happens when others take that data and use it to drive decisions.

This conversation was a gentle reminder that success in data isn't just about creating dashboards or delivering numbers, it's about enabling teams to make better decisions, achieve their goals, and ultimately drive business value.